Fires caused blue rain in Argentina - scientists
Reuters, October, 1998
Blue rain that astonished residents of a northern Argentine town in September was caused by ash from forest fires, government scientists said Saturday. Ash from huge fires to the north in Bolivia and Brazil blew over Argentina and mixed with the rain, giving it a bluish tint, scientists from the Corrientes province health ministry said, according to the state-run Telam news agency. Baffled locals from the town of Perugorria collected samples of the strange rain when it fell Sept. 2, and handed it over to the government for analysis. A health ministry lab found ash in the rain water that it linked to the forest fires after studying meteorological records.